Wright Cyclone
was the name given to a family of air-cooled
radial piston engines
designed by the
Wright Aeronautical Corporation
and used in numerous
American
aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s.
[1]
Background
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The
Wright Aeronautical Corporation
was formed in 1919, initially to develop liquid-cooled
Hispano-Suiza V8
engines under license. The corporation's first original design, the R1, was also the first successful high-powered radial in the USA. Funded by contracts from the US Navy for new air-cooled radials, Wright started a new design (initially called the P2) in 1924. The resignation of
Frederick Rentschler
to form the
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company
, along with several key engineering personnel, seriously affected the development of the P2 and it did not go into production.
Cyclone family
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R-1300 Cyclone 7
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R-1750 Cyclone 9
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A new design was launched in 1926, known as the R-1750 Cyclone. This was a nine-cylinder radial with a displacement of 1750 cu in and internally cooled exhaust valves. It was type-tested at 500 hp in 1927.
[2]
R-1820 Cyclone 9
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In 1932, the R-1750 was developed to a capacity of 1823 cu in. This was the F model Cyclone, designated R-1820. This engine introduced a forged aluminum crankcase and was developed through the 1930s to reach 890 hp. It used a General Electric supercharger, and Wright concluded that this feature limited the potential power output of the engine. For the next development, the G-Series of 1937, Wright developed its own single-speed supercharger. The G-series was developed to deliver 1200 hp at 2500 rpm and made up the bulk of R-1820 Cyclone production during World War 2. It was installed in the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
. The final phase of development of the single-row radial design was the H-Series at 1350 hp. A licensed,
metricated
variant was developed as the
Shvetsov M-25
.
R-2600 Cyclone 14 (Twin Cyclone)
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Wright went on to develop two-row engines with 14 cylinders in two rows of seven, called the
Cyclone 14, R-2600
. This was installed in the
Boeing 314
,
Grumman TBM/TBF Avenger
,
North American B-25 Mitchell
, and some models of the
Douglas A-20 Havoc
(RAF Boston).
R-3350 Cyclone 18 (Duplex Cyclone)
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The penultimate Cyclone development was the 18-cylinder engine R-3350, named the Duplex Cyclone or Cyclone 18. Among other applications, it was installed in the
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
,
Douglas A-1 Skyraider
,
Lockheed P-2 Neptune
, and
Lockheed C-121 Constellation
. In commercial applications it stayed in production until 1957.
R-4090 Cyclone 22
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An experimental 22-cylinder two-row radial intended to compete with the large Pratt & Whitney radial engines. Three prototypes are known to have been built, but development was abandoned to allow resources to be used for the R-3350 development program.
[3]
See also
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References
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- ^
Flying Magazine
. August 1945.
- ^
Grey, C.G., ed. (1928).
Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1928
. London: Sampson Low, Marston & company, ltd. p. 66d.
- ^
Pearce, William (22 March 2013).
"Wright Aeronautical R-4090 Cyclone 22"
.
oldmachinepress.wordpress.com
. Retrieved
24 September
2015
.